(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

queencallipygos
2007-09-14 02:29 pm UTC (link)

I was amazed that I refrained from commenting something along the lines of how many issues someone must have to find either genitalia "grotesque."

Exactly! I was watching something on the Sundance channel, their "Indie films and sex" thing, and they had a bit with a French filmmaker who'd done a film that featured a lot of shots where you could see the female character's ladybits. The filmmaker said that a lot of people found it shocking "because most people find it off-putting to see human genetalia close up."

I was sitting there thinking, "Um, I'm not bugged by it, frankly." When it comes to female genetalia, I've got a set and I know what it looks like, so I don't freak out because -- well, I see that every day; and when it comes to male genetalia, looking at it turns me on because that's my flavor eye candy.

So where the hell is this idea coming from?

(Whatever demigod managed to get me through a Catholic childhood and keep my acceptance of sexuality intact? I need to make a sacrifice of thanks, because seriously, amen and thanks. ...And I also moved this to this comment because it makes more sense here...)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

ecchaniz0r
2007-09-14 02:38 pm UTC (link)

YOU LUCKY SOD. D: I'm ex-Catholic and oh, the issues. I have the flipping complimentary coffee cup and desk lamp set, man.

Stupid madonna-whore complex wank abounding throughout mutter grumble bitch gripe snarl etc.

Oh well. XD My residual issues didn't affect my ability to adfore lifedrawing classes. Human bodies are cool to me. Even though genitalia remind me of some of the kookier plants that spontaneously *poit* out amongst the pansies in my garden. (My brain's weird. My garden's weirder.)

They're not ugly or grotesque to me. Sometimes funny, yes, but not ugly.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

queencallipygos
2007-09-14 02:49 pm UTC (link)

My recovering-Catholicness manifested in a very particular way -- I only worry for a while about whether "is so-and-so going to be put off or offended by the fact that I dig the naughty stuff?" But after a while, once a person has won over my trust and I understand that no, they don't care, then it's like I sigh with relief and say, "oh, okay then," and then the floodgates open. I am that stereotype of that librarian who's all buttoned up most of the time, but when the select few get past that, then I take the glasses off and they find out I'm wearing the merrywidow under the preppy clothes and I have an entire wallfull of erotica at home.

It's probably a combination of having taken a great course on human sexuality in college and then spending a few months in my 20's with friends who hung out at a burlesque club once a week. We had a regular table, we got to know two of the performers' real names and they hung out with us between sets, and one night when I was there I even saw Drew Barrymore get naked. It was rather horizon-expanding.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

ecchaniz0r
2007-09-14 04:14 pm UTC (link)

I get the 'oh. shit. kink. what if i break a mind?' thing also, and I tend to project the omg-wtf on myself more than others, heh.

For me, art college massacred a lot of the numb-nuttery. XD We didn't have a burlesque club anywhere, but we did have this one male model who (a) was a photographer also and (b) had a LOT of piercing in many places. And he was HILARIOUS. "Okay, guys, seriously, this is a cross-your-legs warning - don't kill me, and if I scar you for life, I am so very deeply sorry. ...This is a good day, no one screamed and fainted!"

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

queencallipygos
2007-09-14 04:21 pm UTC (link)

Hee -- one of the performers at the burlesque club was a male fire eater with a lot of piercings; he always wore nothing but a loincloth, and ended his act by taking it off, attaching a 2-foot length of chain with a wick at the end to a piercing on his scrotum, lighting the other end on fire and doing the hula so the chain would go flippy-fling around his legs.

After a while, my friends and I actually would watch the crowd instead of the stage towards the end of his act so we could see how many of the other guys in the place finished their drinks quickly and left at that point.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	funwithrage 2007-09-14 04:06 pm UTC (link)
	Well, I do find vulvae sort of "meh" and unappealing, and not the sort of thing I'd prefer to see close-ups of. I've got a set, they work fine, it's cool, but I'm about 1.5 on the Kinsey scale, and...again, we're back to "meh." But yeah--grotesque? No. What? No. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	queencallipygos 2007-09-14 04:57 pm UTC (link)
	Heh. I may be like...a 2 on the Kinsey scale. I wouldn't say that I found vulvae unappealing, as such, but not grotesque either...I sort of equate them with -- oh, I don't know, arms, maybe. They don't engender any kind of emotional aesthetic reaction in me either way, only indifference; it's more like simply, "okay, that's a body part. And?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

funwithrage
2007-09-14 05:56 pm UTC (link)

Good analogy. I suppose for me it's more like a slightly squickier body part: the tongue comes to mind. Very functional, very pleasantly so, but I really don't want to take a good close look at it, because, y'know...tongue. Uch.

Then again, the more I know about the human body, the more I find it totally disgusting--finding out why your ears get stuffy when you have a cold squicked me out for *days*--so I may have a sliiiightly different perspective here.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

queencallipygos
2007-09-14 06:25 pm UTC (link)

Then again, the more I know about the human body, the more I find it totally disgusting--finding out why your ears get stuffy when you have a cold squicked me out for *days*--so I may have a sliiiightly different perspective here.

That may be it indeed, as I have a higher tolerance for squick, and hearing about random medical anomalies is less likely to ick me out and more likely to make me furrow my brow in fascination and go "...really? Huh. Interesting."

I mean, I've seen color photographs of my own uterus, and didn't blink. Granted, I was stoned on morphine at the time, and it was also the exact same moment in which my then-boyfriend was meeting my parents, so it was an odd situation all around anyway...

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	the_mouse 2007-09-16 06:55 am UTC (link)
	This may be the Ambien talking, but that last part with your icon made perfect sense, thematically. It just flowed so well. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	threegoldfish 2007-09-14 08:54 pm UTC (link)
	On the plus, with all that weird drainage you can put a hot pad along the back edge of your jaw and the heat will help things clear out in both your ears and sinuses. And, you can lay on the couch watching tv that way with zero vision imparement! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	hickorydickory 2007-09-14 06:51 pm UTC (link)
	Frankly, I think more people need to know what female bits look like close up. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	amymccabe 2007-09-15 02:54 pm UTC (link)
	Agreed. (Reply to this)(Parent)

(Read comments) -